@3Mystery moves in God-like ways@1 Is one of many possibilities And may be why I'm here without you now. High clouds bruise and white peaks incarnadine. @3Slender tree of muliebrity@1 would be another explanation. Prairie grass, seductive, luxuriates in amber. Some other Scraps of clouds the rain left behind Hunker down for the night in valleys. The fencepost's shadow leaps out across the plain Like the bejeezus Out of someone. @3The mirage becomes an oasis@1 Is something it might have said. The first stars creep forward Like wild children coaxed from the woods. Love, then, was just a sweeter loneliness Than this, Though snowbroken aspen across the meadow Still catch the latest light like a grove Of saxophones, Like you said, @3Temporary, like eternity,@1 Though once, And once again, Daylight held us on the tip of its tongue And forgot what it was saying. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BEFORE A PAINTING by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON YOU ARE FIRE EATERS by MARIANNE MOORE REMEMBERED WOMEN by CARL SANDBURG |